Alabama football: Duke coach David Cutcliffe has roots with Crimson Tide
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Proof never surfaced, but there was something fishy about hateful unsigned letters that found their way into Bryant Hall mailboxes in the middle 1970s.
Conley Duncan, then an Alabama linebacker, was pretty sure they originated from a certain mail-room worker who will not remain nameless.
“Letters suddenly appeared from Tennessee fans, and Auburn fans and LSU fans,” Duncan said. “Of course, there were never return addresses on there — just hand-written letters, and we used to accuse Cutcliffe of adding to the fire.”
That’s Cutcliffe as in David Cutcliffe, the Duke football coach who is primed for Saturday’s game against his alma mater.
Coming out of Birmingham’s Banks High School, Cutcliffe seemed destined for glory much greater than the accusations of mail-room practical jokes. He was a star linebacker who Duncan expected to be great competition for playing time in Bear Bryant’s defense.
But a knee injury in an all-star game before his freshman year and the absence of modern medical know-how ended the playing days for Cutcliffe. So he jumped into training for what turned into his career that would include two stints of a combined 19 years as an assistant at Tennessee sandwiched between his head coaching job at Mississippi (1999-2004).
Before joining the pro ranks, he was an undergraduate at Alabama from 1972-75 and was part of the 1973 national championship team. Cutcliffe learned under some high quality assistant coaches including Pat Dye, Mal Moore, Curley Hallman, Bud Moore and Pat Donahue.
Though a linebacker by trade, Cutcliffe made a name for himself by helping produce quarterbacks, including Peyton Manning at Tennessee and brother Eli at Mississippi.
“You very seldom see a quarterback lose focus or lose poise or not be able to execute and do exactly what the offense is supposed to be doing,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “That’s always seemed to be the case with coach Cutcliffe, and that’s no different now. Their quarterback is very, very efficient.”
As the Rebels’ head coach taking over for Tommy Tuberville, Cutcliffe took the program to four bowl games in six seasons, including the Cotton Bowl win after sharing the SEC West title in 2003 and being named league coach of the year. Mississippi didn’t get to the SEC Championship Game that season because Saban’s LSU team won the tiebreaker and eventually the national title.
“Nick and I go back,” Cutcliffe said. “He was at LSU when I was at Ole Miss. We had great ballgames. He has my utmost respect for his ability to prepare a football team to play well. Everyone of those games were hard-fought. If there were mistakes on either side, you paid for those mistakes.”
Just a year after barely missing out on playing in the SEC title game, a 4-7 record and unwillingness to makes changes in its wake led to his firing in Oxford, Miss.
So he went back to Tennessee (2006-08) for two years before Duke came calling. He made waves right away by earning wins in three of his first four games — more than the program had recorded in the three previous seasons under current Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof. The team finished 4-8 in 2008 and went 5-7 last season, with wins against N.C. State and Maryland.
Duke’s three ACC wins were the most the program has had in 10 years, and enthusiasm continues building after a high-profile flirtation between Cutcliffe and Tennessee after Lane Kiffin’s offseason departure.
“He would have been a good football player for Alabama if he would have stayed healthy,” Duncan said. “There’s no question. But that would have meant I wouldn’t have played as much as I did. He was a good football player but probably a better person.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Alabama football: Duke coach David Cutcliffe has roots with Crimson Tide."